OTTAWA — Trauma counsellors are being made available to the federal Conservative political staffers who were present at the party's Ottawa headquarters on Tuesday when a mailed package containing a severed foot arrived and sparked what has become a global manhunt for Montreal murder suspect Luka Rocco Magnotta.

Conservative spokesman Fred DeLorey, one of about a dozen employees who were at the party's national office near Parliament Hill when the horrific incident occurred late Tuesday morning, told Postmedia News that "it was a very, very difficult thing to go through" and that concerns about the emotional state of party workers have prompted the plan to offer psychological help to those affected.

"We have a lot of young staff in our office — particularly at this time of year, there's a lot of interns," said DeLorey. "So to go through this kind of thing, we just want to make sure everyone's OK and bring in professional counsellors so they'll have someone to talk to."

DeLorey said Friday's official identification of the victim in the case — Concordia University engineering student Jun Lin, a 33-year-old Chinese citizen who'd had a relationship with Magnotta — only deepened the sense of horror felt by the Conservative staff members.

"What's been very troubling is that someone was murdered and dismembered and sent to us," said DeLorey, who also spoke about Conservative staffers' struggles in an interview aired Saturday on CBC Radio's political affairs program The House.

"As more and more details come out, it's more and more disturbing, seeing all this stuff happening," DeLorey told Postmedia News. "It's something where you can't escape it. Every time you turn on the TV, every time you check out Twitter, it's the leading story. For us, to somehow be part of this is just so strange and surreal."

Magnotta, 29, is believed to have fled to Europe after allegedly killing and dismembering Jun Lin and then mailing body parts to the federal Conservative headquarters and — in a separate package containing a severed hand, which was intercepted at a Canada Post sorting station in Ottawa — to the Liberal party's national office.

The fugitive is also alleged to have left a trail of disturbing content on the Internet, including video of Jun Lin's death and dismemberment and — in earlier postings — scenes showing the killing of kittens.

A picture of the Toronto-born suspect has emerged that suggests he is intelligent but deeply disturbed, craves attention and considers himself a master of disguise, able to alter his appearance and identity and to disappear at will.

Along with first-degree murder and other charges Magnotta is already facing, Montreal investigators filed additional charges on Friday related to the shipping of body parts to Ottawa.

The new indictment alleges that Magnotta "did act towards (Prime Minister) Stephen Harper and members of Parliament, knowing they were being harassed or being reckless as to whether they were being harassed."

In addition to the two new charges of uttering threats — each of which carries a maximum two-year prison sentence — Magnotta is accused of using the mail system "for the purpose of transmitting or delivering anything that is obscene, indecent, immoral or scurrilous."

DeLorey said the package arrived shortly after 11 a.m. on Tuesday at the party's offices in the Varette Building — located at 130 Albert St. in downtown Ottawa — and was brought to top Conservative adviser Jenni Byrne, the party's director of operations and Harper's campaign manager in last year's election.

"Canada Post dropped off a package in our reception area," DeLorey recalled. "An administrative assistant went out and thought it was suspicious, so brought it to Jenni, who examined it.

"They opened it, and that's when they noticed blood stains and a very, very foul odour," he said. "The odour was just very overwhelming, very powerful. We all just walked right out. Jenni made the decision right away to call police. She knew something was very wrong.

"There was around 12 of us there that day. Not everyone would have been close enough to smell the box."

After police arrived and the party headquarters was transformed into "a crime scene," much of the office was off-limits until the next day, said DeLorey.

"Jenni's a very strong person. She's doing fine," he said, but added: "We were just very stunned by this. The first few days were very, very difficult. We'll see how things go."

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